Abstract
Photochemical methods were developed to obtain a variation of the refractive index in aromatic polymer surfaces and a change in the photoluminescence characteristics of phenylene-vinylene-based polymers. Films of aromatic polymers, among them polystyrene (PS), poly(2-vinylnaphthalene) (PVN) and derivatives of poly(p-phenylene-vinylene) (PPV) were UV irradiated in the presence of gaseous hydrazine (N2H4). The photoreaction led to a strong reduction of the refractive index of the polymers due to a hydrogenation of the aromatic units. In the case of PPV, we observed reductive photobleaching. This new technique was employed to produce photogenerated patterns in PPV. The results are compared to oxidative bleaching.